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"The closer you get to the light, the darker your shadow becomes" - Carl Jung The Saga of Ethergaard has yet to be writ...the pages of history open before you, stain them with the ink and blood that comes with the cosmic struggle! Chapter One: Welcome to the Bazaar Azrael awakens in his opulent house on the western flank of the Exalted Estates district. His parents and siblings, having toiled in the underdark and worked their way to establishing him here, have entrusted Azrael to gather intelligence on the surface city of Ethergaard and become part of the community. On a dim autumn day, Azrael seeks out a high elf geologist working at Myrla's gems named Kolvar. The two hit it off, and he learns of a conspiracy theory that the days will get shorter, that the sun is dying out. Kolvar distrusts the idea, stating that the alarmist halfling population is likely spreading it as a way to destabilize the high elf population that has been able to make it on the surface. Azrael gets the other side of the story in the Bazaar district, at the Yondalla caravan with Panzor and Uneni. Apparently, Ethergaard has initiated daylight savings time to no effect, and the halflings believe Yondallan high priest words that the Windswept Coast will pay for the bloody wars fought on its soil by an apocalyptic event known as "Nightfall". As Azrael loosens up and reveals his shadow elf face (picking up a disguise kit in exchange for the information), screams erupt from the nearby Whitebull General Goods, a clustered, mazelike business where a man named Sigmund is being pursued by two Etherknights and four Ethergaards. Azrael magically leaps through a window, and uses spells to distract the guards, allowing Sigmund to slip out of their grasp. Attempting to vault toward Azrael, Sigmund slips right through the wall, falling into an unseen space. Azrael creates warlock illusions to distract the guards and runs to the wall himself, finding himself plunging through a liquid like portal into a free fall, emerging into a distorted version of Whitebull General Goods in the shadow plane. Here, everything is cold and shifting in shadow. He uncovers a letter in a bundle of rags from a someone name Videric Hearst, as well as a cryptic verse. Apparently, Hearst was sent to this "prison" by the "Paradiso" family. He says he lost a key in flight and is in hiding, but wants to alert any potential family members who are also imprisoned. Azrael pockets the letters, explores the labyrinth, finding an odd floating ball of negative energy. Winding through the halls, Azrael is grievously wounded by a skeletal archer, who he eldritch blasts and destroys. He uses the negative energy ball on a shadow door and finds himself back at the entrance, where he rests. Chapter Two: Saving Sigmund After a short rest, Azrael continues through the shadowplane. He defeats a group of shadow rats, then tries to hide in a room filled with the bones of others that came before. He is interrupted while nursing his wounds by two shambling corpses, starting a chase through the labyrinth. Eventually, he destroys the zombies but not before alerting some type of fiend in the maze. Something huge is thumping through these cold corridors. After locating a safe room, Azrael hears a pained cry and hurries to the rescue of Sigmund, who is being attacked by two shadows who are bashing him and sapping his strength. At this point, Azrael is exhausted, and Sigmund is hurt. They locate a strange room with a stove, a sconce, and a metal box on the wall with bars and keyholes and a pulley system leading into an unseen room. Azrael recommends that the lithe Sigmund climb onto the rope, which rings a large bell in the unseen room. Thump. They have alerted the beast. Chapter Three: The Proposition Freezing and even more tired than before, Sigmund and Azrael dash through the dungeon halls. Azrael turns around to hide just as Sigmund comes into view with the dungeon's guardian: The White Bull. A minotaur skeleton charges down the hallway, spars with Sigmund and forces the duo into close quarter combat. In and out of consciousness, the two duel until they are defeated. Sigmund stabilizes, administering his last two potions to himself and to Azrael. Then, the two play more cat and mouse, running from but finally cornering the bull in a hallway, destroying him with crossbow bolts and magic energy. After this, the two explore and find more Umbra, shadow energy that allows secret doors to open. They investigate the throne room and grotto, and find the man resembling Videric Hearst hanged on a cliffside. They nearly exit the dungeon before running into what appears to be a trap. They double back, reading over notes. An awful realization dawns: Sigmund himself is from the Hearst family. But what is the meaning of this? Why did he end up here? The two decide to approach the hanged Videric and the corpse springs to life, using the rope around its neck to try to snare the two adventurers who are near death. They run and fire at the corpse, finally destroying him. In his possession is an apology for not making it, an assurance that other family members will be hunted. Azrael discovers a faint code on the paper but isn't certain what to do with it. They also find a black mask that Azrael puts on. After surviving a poison dart trap, they push onto the exit: a horrific nightmare zone. Here is the drow lich Valxun, a horrific, flying mage infused with blue energy, floating above a tentacle with spikes and an eye in it, guarding shadowy images of the other Hearst family members enduring eternal torment. Ahead of Azrael is the shadowgate back to the material plane. Valxun, in an otherworldly voice, puts forth a proposition that stops the shadow elf in his tracks: give Sigmund over to receive the punishment "befitting the Hearst family" and receive safe passage and navigation to the underdark routes underneath Ethergaard that could put him in good strategic position for the rest of the campaign. The lich answers his inquest regarding the Paradisos, saying they have been "dead for over a century". Azrael considers the words of both Sigmund and Valxun, stuck with what feels like an impossible choice for the fledgling assassin. Chapter Four: The Nursery Azrael questions Valxun, wondering why Sigmund is of such importance. It turns out the entire Hearst family were "agents of chaos", and their removal will make Valxun's ascent "predictable". Despite Sigmund's pleas, Azrael casts the tattooed man toward the lich, who, making use of the giant tentacle, steals the life of Sigmund. All around Valxun are the strange, pink shadows of the Hearst family. Azrael enquires about the color: why is there color in the plane of shadow? It turns out this is a convergence spot between the plane of Shadow and the Plane of Dreams, which results in a nightmare zone. The inquest impresses the lich. A pact is made: in six days, Valxun will help Azrael find underdark passages relevant to his shadow elf clan. Returning home and resting after his near death experience, Azrael is visited by his father Izzoko. The elder shadow elf has been amassing arms while his wife shores up troops for what will eventually be an emergence, a day when the clan no longer needs to be confined to the underdark and can draw on the surface's resources too. Along with Azrael's general mission of establishing himself in Ethergaard, Izzoko challenges Azrael to find out more about Sigmund and also to stake out a warehouse where troops and arms can be temporarily moved to. Setting out, Azrael visits the Southern Quarter, the Fishery, the border of Emerald Knoll, and then circles back to the fishery, finding a defunct nursery for trees near the western gate. Inside, Azrael gets the jump on a goblin guard and obliterates him with magic. A tense sword fight follows with a goblin and a goblin boss, Azrael barely eking out a victory and forcing the goblin boss to flee. The nursery has been claimed. Chapter Five: Black Mask The goblin chieftain defeated by Azrael flees, begging Ethergaards for shelter. The goblin is thrown out of the town gates and into the Plains of Exile. Azrael surveys the nursery then leaves to tell Izzoko of his success. They hatch a plan: the meeting of landowners and nobility that Skipta is conducting the next night will be a perfect event to ingratiate Azrael into high society. After that, they will use Valxun's help to find an underdark passage underneath the nursery so he can move the Thurianni Clan shadow elves to the surface at last. He spends the night and next morning picking up local rumors to help flesh out his alternate identity: a high elf named Ianni. He learns that the Vaitarna river has been dammed on one side to assure safer passage, but it has interfered with some shipping companies. He hears that hunters have been bringing back progressively fewer meats and pelts, but the extent of the volume deduction has not been felt by the population yet, but will soon. He also learns that a luxury skyship, Volaris, is being built with steam and arcane energy, but is currently grounded. The architects have so far failed to build this large civil project correctly, and Exalted Estates benefactors are growing concerned. Armed with these local politics, and putting on the black half-mask that marks nobility (the one he found on Videric Hearst), Azrael leaves for the town meeting. Lord Skipta gives his speech the next day at Thresher Hall. He warns of "insurrectionists" and "bringers of chaos". He tells the story of a town guard recently promoted to a squire, who leaked information about the town's security and spread lies making Ethergaardians fear "the sun itself" and nature. He says the man was pursued and then killed in action. Ianni pretends to gasp and realizes Skipta must be assuming Sigmund died in the shadowplane, this was the squire who endangered the town. He congratulates Euric and Leovulg on capturing, and announces a new statute: those with information on bringers of chaos will be rewarded, those who fail to report suspicious activity may stand trial. Skipta ends on a "happier tune", telling everyone that more scholars than ever are graduating from the academy, and Ethergaard is at the peak of historical might. Furthermore, the town has inked a deal with Thornmoor to bring in more steel than ever before. After the speech, Azrael notices a man has been staring at him the whole time. It is Namatius Elysium, a noble who is impressed by his mask. The two talk local politics, and Namatius becomes more curious about this "Ianni," inviting him to the town's fanciest inn and diner, the Chamberlain. Azrael also meets Alderman Jaynyn and Earl Gillet, two nobles who have been impacted by the damming of Vaitarna. He ingratiates himself with them as well, and each agree that they would like to meet again as well. The shadow elf knows all this nobility will get suspicious if he isn't licensed, so he signs up for classes at the Academy which will get him his merchants license in a month so he can own a shipping company. He begins learning about currency, finding out that there was a day when Ethergaard was known as the Barony of Cephalan, and currency was mostly electrum pieces and gold bars. Azrael meets Namatius the following night, Namatius riding in a bizarre steam-powered carriage with a mechanical horse. They eat a four course meal and Namatius reveals he is the chief architect of Volaris the skyship. He is a decent mage and renowned scholar who nonetheless has failed to inscribe the correct sigils to get Volaris going. He asks Azrael his thoughts about Sigmund and the meeting, then invites Azrael to the next experimental launch in a month. After the meeting, Azrael goes to sleep one night and wakes up, haunted by hallucinations. When he opens his eyes, he's back underneath White Bull, on the border of the shadow plane and the plane of dream. Here, Valxun says he will make good on his deal, and before Azrael's eyes, he transforms the Hearst family into devils. While most are misshapen lemures, Videric and Irnfried are the exception, becoming powerful devils. Valxun imbues Azrael with a star chain and more warlock powers, promising pacts unknown to most of the warlock world. He says he will show Azrael the way through the underdark remotely, as he has to take the Hearsts "where they belong". He says the next time Azrael sleeps, he will awaken in the underdark with Irnfried. Azrael says goodbye to Izzoko, who will also be leaving to bring the shadow elves to the passage. He says to look into Valxun to know what he's getting into. When Azrael goes to sleep, sure enough he wakes up with Irnfried in tow, the glowing eyes of Valxun following him to assist. Valxun wants to find a passage for himself as well, as he has some sort of business and needs the area mapped out. Azrael immediately discovers a hooked horror in the passages, firing eldritch blasts at it. The horror, a terrifying beetle body with a bird's head and hooks for arms, runs off into a group of gnoll hunters. Azrael and Irnfried stealthily pursue, watching the hooked horror kill two gnolls and force the others to retreat. The horror continues to run, Azrael and Irnfried pursuing until they find an advantageous position on a large rock in the middle of a corridor. Chapter Six: Nest of the Hooked Horror Azrael scouts out his position from on top of his rock perch, turning invisible. He doesn't realize that the gnolls who retreated went back to the camp, and are now slowly investigating the cavern beneath him. Irnfried picks a bioluminescent Ormu mushroom before nearly surprised in combat. Azrael notices them at the last second, throwing rocks to warn his devil companion. A fight ensues, with a gnoll pack lord leading the assault and even more gnoll archers flooding the passages and firing barrages of arrows. Three gnolls are killed in the battle, which involves Azrael going in and out of the shadowplane and creating duplicates of himself. The rest of the gnolls are pushed back to their encampment and are not pursued. Instead, the two loot the bodies, rest up, and decide a change of plans is in order: Valxun will conduct his business and return within a day to help Azrael find the spot that leads beneath the fishery nursery. In route, Irnfried challenges his servitude and is delivered with shocks of pain and reminded the alternative is hell. Exploring further, Azrael scouts ahead while Irnfried is spotted and attacked by two stalactites that turn out to be darkmantles. Globes of darkness envelop the passages and Azrael decides he wants none of it. He runs into a large room, still invisible, and while attempting to climb a rock face spots the hooked horror above. The horror descends and joins the battle. Hideous screams from Irnfried escape the darkness, the sounds of hooks meeting flesh and Irnfried's strangely muffled voice convincing Azrael not to get any closer. Instead, he investigates the perch the horror came down from finding a nest! Four white hooked horror eggs lie in beds of straw. He puts one in his pack and descends to watch more of the fight. Both darkmantles are eventually killed but Irnfried is defeated, knocked out, lying unconscious but stable. Azrael and the wounded hooked horror square off, and the shadow elf uses his mirror image to score a crucial victory. At the end of the battle, Irnfried lies with tiny cuts all over his head and throat and deep hook wounds. The hooked horror's huge body lies, brutalized by eldritch blasts. The manta ray-like darkmantles are spread out on the ground like umbrellas. The only standing victor is the shadow elf. Chapter Seven: Emergence Irnfried is propped against a rock by Azrael who finds himself feeling at least a little protective of his fiendish partner in arms. The shadow elf decides to explore the dungeon further. He moves through the south tunnels and hides behind a boulder when he hears the gnolls' hyena-like laughing in the distance. While hiding, he sees a strange passageway with a demonic statue shrouded in mist. While momentarily thinking he might rest behind the statue, Azrael decides to take advantage of his stealth and track the gnoll group. He sees them open a mossy secret door and go into a tunnel. Following them, he finds the group back at the stalactite room, and monitors the gnolls in case they take Irnfried. The gnolls see the felled Hooked Horror and are jubilant, they quickly scan the room, deciding Irnfried must also be dead, and they run out, catching Azrael off guard. Azrael responds by sending eldritch blasts at them and firing while running backward through the tunnels. The prowess of the Greymoon family elf shines through: he defeats the gnolls, three on one, killing two and causing the last to route. Afterwards, Azrael drags Irnfried to the northern tunnels where Valxun disappeared to do some unspecified business. Irnfried and Azrael take a short rest and heal up. Valxun returns in a terrible mood, making references to some entity he is bound to, likening it to the bond he has with Azrael but saying he has “no choice” in the matter. Nevertheless, Valxun is impressed with the shadow elf’s success, and shows him a spot right by the hooked horror nest. Above is the warehouse marked for the Thurianni clan. Vlaxun blasts a hole in the ceiling, and casts fly on Irnfried and Azrael, who float towards the skylight, emerging out of the underdark and into the snow-flecked glass of the nursery, the rich pine, the plant life. All elements Irnfried has been deprived of. His joy seems analogous to the struggle of the shadow elves: imprisonment and then release. Tears come to his eyes. As Valxun praises the shadow elf, Azrael uses his clout to propose that Irnfried stay above surface and in the warehouse. Valxun trusts the elf, and agrees. Irnfried uses his telepathy to thank Azrael. Before leaving, Valxun lets Azrael know he can now visit his patron in the nightmare zone but alludes to potentially dangerous mental aftereffects if he does so. Victorious, Azrael goes back to the Exalted Estates. He practices with a new persona: the clown. While building this alter ego up, Izzoko returns and he has a militant detachment of the Thurianni Clan with him. They are overjoyed at the new that they have a location in Ethergaard that is safe and possible to travel to. Azrael breaks out the champagne and there is a party in his exalted estate. He speaks with Sedna Mori, who can make clothing out of the dye from the Ormu mushrooms he gathered. Brundi, his sister, is proud of him, but his older brother Gorran is scowling and seems jealous. Politics from their underdark home of Al-draghazar is discussed. Illumi apparently is skeptical about the shadow elves accomplishing much on the surface, but Azrael has already shown Izzoko’s intitiative may prove fruitful. Izzoko appears oblivious to these politics, smoking cigars and resolving to travel the underdark to the warehouse the next day. By evening, Izzoko arrives with the Thurianni in tow, and a second party starts at the nursery. The shadow elves celebrate and admire the skylight. Izzoko reveals the trip back was odd, he detected a lot of shadow plane activity in that run of the underdark beneath the Fishery. Not knowing what to do with this information, Azrael mentions seeing a demonic statue decides to pray to his patron at night and visit the nightmare zone. Here, Valxun explains that particular areas can have increased shadow activity for specific reasons, and suggests Azrael find a mage school to ask about the situation. After receiving this hint, Azrael wakes up, his head aching again. When he begins to speak, the alienating strangeness of the nightmare zone has plagued his senses: he can only speak gibberish. Chapter Eight: Speaking in Tongues Having discovered that the plane of Shadow is seeping through due to events that have happened in Ethergaard, Azrael awakens back at his house. Leaving his house, he runs into Kolvar, but is unable to make any sense. His words seem to twist into entirely unrelated fragments, atonal screetches, and gutteral growls. Kolvar is at first worried but Azrael quickly dismisses himself, trying to find a mage guild. His head is throbbing. As the day turns to night, Azrael's speech returns and he attends a meeting with Alderman Jaynyn and Earl Gillet at Gillet's seaside manor. The two noblemen are impressed with Azrael's connections, both to Namatius Elysium and for his apparent (but faked) mercantile background. They let him in on a secret: they're interested in dominating fishmonger row, a series of dilapidated shacks and low rent businesses in order to make space for luxury housing. Their plan to drive out the population includes exacerbating concern about wandering monsters from the plane of exile sweeping through and damaging the homes (hoping to pose as industrialists who can build a more safe section of town and save it) and by voting down attempts to remove the dam until it has caused enough problems in shipping returns that the area is less profitable. Azrael poses as if these are the most natural concerns to have, and they agree to cut him in on the deal, saying they'll meet again soon. After this, Azrael goes on the hunt for information regarding Valxun's strange message: that these sections of shadowplane that run underneath Ethergaarde have some origin in the city's history. He finds himself at Deadtown, in the cult temple of Wee Jas, where a beautiful scarlet haired priestess, Mezreia, reveals to him that there have been traumatic experiences suffered in Ethergaarde that appear to recur on the shadowplane, repressed pain that articulates itself infinitely in a sad and broken version of what truly exists. After receiving this strange information, Azrael does some reconnaissance in Deadtown. A bald adventurer sees him looking at a sign with a scorpion emblazoned upon it, and tells him its the "Scorpion Mercenary Company" and that he looks like the type of character that might be looking for some gold in exchange for work. Azrael considers his clan's need for gold and enters. He asks the guildmaster, a half-orc named Druz, if there are any jobs in the fishery district. The guildmaster says "nay", but the bald man says that he knows of one, right on Fishmonger Row. He tells Azrael to stake out some nobles that have been hanging around the area without getting caught and report back about their plans for two hundred gold. Azrael follows the directions and finds himself on the broken cobbles of Fishmonger row in the dead of night. Before he can react, he is surrounded by a powerful gang. While Azrael is able to injure several of them, he is ultimately defeated and captured. Chapter Nine: We Chose This, You Fell Into It Awakening bound to a chair, Azrael finds himself surrounded by a strange array of adventurers in a boarded-over tavern. Graffiti reading "The Bastards" is plastered over the planks and make-shift accommodations. A tall, strong looking figure with prematurely gray braided hair, Destin, smirks at Azrael and accuses him of tampering with nobles he has no business tampering with. He reveals how Azrael was hunted and ambushed: the bald man from the Scorpion Mercenary Company steps forward. His name is Vicar, a man who wishes to join with the Bastards and is now ready for "the gauntlet", some kind of test that has another name apparently. Destin finishes by saying that Alderman Jaynyn and Earl Gillet are in their pockets and off limits, and resigns Azrael to imprisonment. He is taken below ground through a tunnel and left in a locked cell, right across from another cell with Feredire, a captured wood elf. The area is patrolled by an enthralled goblin named Braggath, who greatly fears the rat that sometimes visits and takes personal offense to Feredire's chorus of "bitch boy" whenever he walks by the cellblock. Strangely enough, Captain Harshlight, a member of the Bastards, leads Vicar down to a circular platform with a switch at the edge of it and tells Braggath to let him "take the test". Harshlight leaves, and Braggath asks Vicar if he's ready. Vicar says of course, but Braggath replies "no, you're not" pulls the switch, and drops Vicar straight through the floor. Azrael and Feredire whisper to each other and eventually start to harass Braggath. When the goblin decides to ignore the chiding of the two captives, wisely choosing to eat his lunch instead of giving them an opportunity to pick his pocket for a key, Azrael calls on his warlock powers to Misty Step out of the cell. He then pushes the equipment chest toward Feredire's cell and Feredire starts shouting that the chest is alive and a Mimic. When the goblin approaches, Azrael dives out, pinning him to Feredire's cell bars. Feredire ferrets the key off Braggath's waist, unlocks his manacles, and smashes the iron sides of them against Braggath's head and knocks him out. After this, they unlock the cell door and they reclaim their equipment. They find a dusty iron door with "The Letter of the Law" written in dust. Azrael uses Augury to call on Valxun to give him a hint as to whether or not Feredire and Vicar, the man that disappeared, could be an aid to escaping. He is given an unequivocal "yes". It even turns out Feredire even has a similiar story to the shadow elf: he was hired at the Scorpion Mercenary Company to collect a bounty on Anixius's head (a mage for the Bastards) and was assaulted and captured in the process. With their stories told, the two decide to rig a grenade trap to the food door and then test the trap door, dropping Braggath's body below into the gauntlet using the switch. After this, they descend into what Braggath called "THE STINK". Sure enough, 60 ft below ground is a sewer system with those exact words graffiti-sprayed on the wall. Feredire takes an opportunity to deface it, writing, "two in the pink, one in" above it. The two trapise through a corridor filled with scything blade traps, one of them injuring Feredire. At the end, they find Vicar reacting to a strange sound ahead of him. They call out, and Vicar is aghast. How a man who helped capture and another who was imprisoned get free? Vicar is sure he will be killed but tries to reason, saying they aren't different, he was just trying to make it, to put food on the table. Azrael disagrees telling him Vicar "fell into" where they are now while Feredire and Azrael "chose it". As a result, they force the bald swordsman to lead the way. He goes into southern tunnels that he says were full of maddening voices. A babbling fills the hall and Vicar unexpectedly wheels around and strikes Azrael. A few seconds later he pleads, saying he didn't choose that act consciously, he doesn't know what came over him. Feredire has already wounded him, but Azrael makes a plea for Vicar's life, believing him. Sure enough, a Gibbering Mouther, a mass of chewing mouths and ectoplasm, comes shambling around the corner, upsetting flagstones and threatening the party's sanity. Azrael and Feredire keep their distance, firing shots while Vicar fights up close. They eventually destroy the mouther, but Vicar is blinded by its spittle. Azrael has backed his way into another tunnel where a female voice assures him that what he's doing is a waste of time. To give up and relax. The party investigates, and a strange figure in a white gown appears, a woman of considerable beauty with long dark hair. She mimics the voice of Feredire to try to sway Azrael but he sees through it. They avoid her, but are apparently pursued: her footfalls never sound far from them. Navigating around a fetid pool of sewer water and some bootleg rum, the party finds a green switch Vicar was afraid to pull and they activate it, partially draining the water. They then find a pile of trash near where the mouther came from and a section of the sewer with a dry canal save for heaps of mud. The mud takes to its feet, the sludge is an elemental and has two more of its kind in tow. The party battles the mud elementals, and Vicar is blinded again with mud. He is knocked unconscious. They defeat the rest of the elementals, with Azrael skipping across the pool but not without alerting a creature in its depths. Feredire cuts Vicar's throat to put him out of his misery, and Azrael fires an incredible eldritch blast shot into the depths that happens to explode directly onto an utter monstrosity: zombified crocodile in the sewer depths. Chapter Ten: Fall of Heroes The sound of the battle has alerted another denizen of the swere depths: the dragonborn fighter known as Opie. This member of the Thornmacht has been spying on the Bastards and has found himself in the sewers after stowing away on their skiff. After hearing the hallucinatory sounds of the woman in white, the sounds of battle change his perspective. It's time to see who else is in the depths. Azrael sneaks up behind Opie while Feredire tries to show that he means no harm; they are all trapped. Right as the party appears to solidify, the figure in white rises up out of the water, riding the zombified crocodile. A pitched battle ensues, the figure in white disappearing and reappearing, mocking the party and clawing at them. As she is attacked, her pale white skin fades to a sickening green. Her manicured hands turned to long witchy fingernails. Her white gown turns black. She takes severe damage and is routed down the path with the scything blade traps. The crocodile has more success, swallowing and badly wounding Opie before he busts out with a breath weapon aided by ranged attacks from Azrael, who is perched on a staircase. After the fight, Azrael embarks on his own path. Feredire tries in vain to find the figure in, well now, black, but she leaves no footprints. While Azrael examines the dungeon, finding a giant stone door at the top of an incline from which the main flow of water rolls downhill, Opie and Feredire take a closer look at the sewer pipe room. This was the room Opie had inhabited when he was confined to a crate as a stowaway. Inside are three chests, and above them a sign reading "CHOOSE WISELY". "Luckily, I'm wise," remarks Feredire, and after assessing a series of pressure plates beneath each chest, they examine the contents. Each chest has a different object: the first, a plank, the second, a potion, the third, a bag of gold. Opie grabs the plank at the same time as Feredire grabs the two other objects. The result: the chests all collapse into the ground, shaking the chamber and causing six rat swarms, a total of 80 rats in all, scurrying hungrily from the drainage pipes. Opie and Feredire valiantly battle the rats while Azrael looks around for the crone. The rats prove to be too rabid, too numerous to chase away. They cover their bodies and bite until both adventurers are no more. By the time Azrael gets to them, they have devoured both and are now on the hunt for him. He runs through the tunnels, evading them and barely escaping with his life. He returns the drainage pipe room and hides the bodies of his party members, and himself, in the crate. Chapter Eleven: Who's the Bastard Now Azrael sits motionless in a crate with the dead bodies of his fellow captives jammed in next to him. It is in this grisly state that he resolves to do what the Thurianni Clan has taught him to do: survive at even the most impossible odds. Sneaking out of the chamber with his wounds healed, Azrael climbs a staircase and uncovers a room with a magical brewing contraption that creates ale, along with a blue switch that he pulls. This appears to drain more water from the reservoir and re-direct the sewer flows. He also attracts a couple of the rat swarms, which he tactically defeats by hurling them down the staircases with forceful eldritch blasts. He leaves the brewery, finding a locked and barred sewer door, and maps his way through the sewer system, finding the sewer slightly different from when he pressed the blue switch. Now, the water has completely drained out of the reservoir where the crocodile once lay. Beneath are glittering coins and a note stating "LAND SEA FIRE". He pockets these and hears the sounds of the mysterious white figure again, this time in a nearby sewer tunnel. The shadow elf assassin stealthily pursues his prey, finding the figure in a twisted combination of the features of this black haired goddess and the grey haired witch. He launches her so far back with an eldritch blast she's lost in the dark. Racing through the sewer, the woman appears from nowhere, a couple stones skittering into the now-filling drainage pipes and altering him. When she appears, he blasts her again and she vanishes from sight, reappearing, seemingly conjuring a giant rat right in front of him. Azrael sees his opening. He charges the rat and swings then uses his misty step to disappear from site and appear behind the witch, hitting her with a devastating blow that knocks her unconscious. He ties her up and partially blocks the tunnel with her roped body. He finds a statue on the figure that closely resembles her more beautiful appearance. He also finds a potion of water breathing. After this, Azrael goes further down the sewer tunnel and sees a red switch ahead. The note now makes sense to him: LAND SEA FIRE. The green switch was land, the blue was sea, the red is fire. He has hit the switches in the correct succession, and marches ahead to get the final one. Though Azrael notices prints in the dust on the floor that suggest the ground had been touched by wooden boards at one point, he takes no heed and the floor falls out from underneath him. He uses his final misty step to appear on the other side. He pulls the red switch and reverses the flow of the sewer drains, causing powerful winds to blow through the sewer. It's at this point that Azrael is in trouble. He looks into the pit and notices theres no easy way back across. Down beneath are the ancient remnants of something that came from long before the sewer was engineered: a vast and elaborate antechamber held up by Corinthian columns with an altar in the middle. He shines a torch on what lies below: glittering objects on the table in the darkness, a sacrificial dagger and a choker. The sewer water is accumulating in the ancient chamber. He can make out frescoes full of statuary and a marble, and a partially destroyed statue on the altar. The torchlight illuminates a corner of the drowning chamber and he sees a giant mouth, with multiple rows of teeth, jutting out of the water. Tentacles with similarly toothed mouths writhe around the creature. Azrael makes a decision. He braves an hour long rest, opening himself up to attacks, but gets lucky. There is nothing but silence. He drops the torch to sizzle into the water then uses feather fall to float gently down on shadowy, batlike wings and turns invisible, downing the water breathing potion before entering the water. In the antechamber, Azrael sees the aberration surging toward the junk in the corner of the room, rabidly pursuing drowned rat corpses for food. Azrael takes a glowing ceremonial dagger and a dragonscale choker from the altar, but leaves the figurine by the statue and is filled with a sensation of completeness. He can see in the far corner of the antechamber a way out of this strange room: a sewer drain that is actually pulling the water upwards in a tunnel. He dives in the water and swims out of the way of the creature, rising back to the giant stone door the party found earlier on the higher level, right out of the drain. This time though, the door is open, and the water is pushing him upwards! Azrael takes the current upwards to what must be a spot near to the surface. He finds a smugglers cove, with empty crates, a chained up skiff, and a huge moat-like door closing off the cove. This is where the bastards dock their ship. He finds a grey switch here, which he hits to reset the gauntlet's flows. Azrael sees a dusty iron door at the north side of the cove with a tragicomic Olidammaran mask built into it. There is red graffiti above it reading THINK, echoing the STINK from earlier. When he approaches, a jubilant voice announces he has survived the gauntlet and has a new task: solve the riddle. I begin eternity, And end space, At the end of time, And in every place, Last in life, Second to death, Never alone, Found in your breath, Contained by earth, Water or flame, My grandeur so awesome, Wind dare not tame, Not in your mind, Am in your dreams, Vacant to Kings, Present to Queens Azrael contemplates a strange coded poem, and recalls this iron door is the very same one he saw when he was imprisoned, that read "LETTER OF THE LAW" on the other side. Noting this, he realizes the code is gesturing toward a particular letter: "E". He says the letter and the mouth envelops the door, letting off a triumphant horn alarm. The Bastards rush back down the stairs. Azrael immediately turns invisible and notices the grenade trap had been sprung. Last of the gate is a badly injured Captain Harshlight, who now has a peg leg from the grenade strike. Destin Bela, the head of the Bastards, believes Vicar has successfully navigated the gauntlet. He yells out a congratulation. When there is no response, Veselona warns him that they are missing two prisoners. Destin keeps his hand on his sword and calls again, and Azrael appears right behind Captain Harshlight with a devastating rapier strike, knocking the injured captain unconscious. He grabs the pirate by the throat and threatens to cut him ear to ear if they get close. He notices Destin deeply cares about the pirate, and is trying to negotiate. Azrael demands a place on the Bastards, and Destin concludes he has successfully passed THINK and STINK, and wants to know what happened to the other two. "There were actually three, one you never knew about. And they're all dead," Azrael darkly intones. Destin is extremely intimidated, and notes that there's just one last trial for initiation: INK. He would have to get a tattoo with the letter B on it. Anixius is appalled at the suggestion that a prisoner and spy could become part of the group. He mentions that his cellmate, Feredire was going to have him killed, and the party killed Braggath and badly injured Captain Harshlight. Destin quiets him as Azrael asks if the script for the letter B is up to him. Destin lightens up, realizing that he has a way to save his friend. "Of course, ink it in any hand you please..." Just like that, the captive has become a Bastard himself. Azrael lets Harshlight drop to the ground while the party coalesce around him. Azrael walks out casually to the sounds of their relief, and Anixius's disbelief. Chapter Twelve: The Damming of Vaitarna In a manor house in the Exalted estates, Azrael awakens and traipses across town to the nursery, where he finds Izzoko training a new contingent of Thurianni Clan shadow elves. Brundi and Sedna Mori are excited to see him, and Izzoko encourages his in-route to the Bastards, while Brundi seems worried. The fiend Irnfried Hearst seems busy, attaching a tapestry to cover the skylight. Across town, two Bastards return from a diamond heist: the Wee Jas death monk Wolfrün and the lizardfolk trickster cleric Yex. They find the Bastards in a state of disarray. Having worked with Alderman Jaynyn and Earl Gillet to monitor the wandering monster attacks in the Fishery and report back, they located the spy Azrael. This shadow elf had been captured but escaped and passed the test to become a guild member, even taking a member hostage to ensure that he be added. Destin and Wolfrün shout down a concerned Anixius while Yex attempts to stave off Captain Harshlight's leg infection (unfortunately failing to do so). In the streets outside both the fishery and the Olidammaran safehouse are the calls of coming darkness from doomsayers. The two sides meet when town criers take to the streets with trumpets calling an immediate town meeting. Lord Skipta and Grand Officer Anagastes have taken to the stage, bringing news of yet another attack on the fishery. This time, the monsters are described: shadow forms that have been beating fisher peasants. There has been a dam standing at the northern banks of the Vaitarna river, nearly completed, which is argued could be used to stop the spirits from arriving. They put the matter to vote immediately (even though it was tabled for the Winter Thresher Hall vote next month) as an emergency, allowing Thresher Hall members to air their arguments on the matter. Azrael, in his disguise self form as noble high elf Ianni, speaks out of turn on behalf of the what the nobles want: damming of the Vaitarna river, which will stop spirits from arriving via this water route that seems to symbolize both life and death, the flow of trade goods and the flow of bodies via ceremonial burial. Kolvar enthusiastically agrees, and appears to be taking a true liking to Ianni. Ragnoc Redbeard, dwarven blacksmith, speaks in opposition. Wolfrün thinks a dam could do little to stop spirits and is escorted out for his trouble. Yex joins them. Earl Gillet and Alderman Jaynyn land the pivotal blow to this argument, saying the attacks proved their concerns for the fishery's safety, and that not only should the river be dammed, but the shacks in the fishery should be evaluated for structural supports and torn down if they are a hazard. Commander Euric says he was previously on the fence but doesn't want to risk losing Ethergaards in battles against spirits with no known anatomy. The matter is put up to vote, and the nobles win with only a few dissenting votes. The final slab of the dam would be immediately put into place, with a ceremony the following night at Thresher Hall where the Pholtian seal on the dam would be lit. The nobles call Ianni and the Bastards to a feast at the Chamberlain for assisting them, giving each a bag of gold (and an extra one for a member not present, Azrael). Ianni follows them, finding that they are indeed hoping to dominate the settling and trade of the fishery, and this move will allow them to do so. The river will be less suitable for fishing in the south, driving away competition. They will be able to replace the ramshackle huts with expensive manor houses. In addition, Ianni believes there could be a link to Namatius Elysium's sky-ship project but isn't sure what that would be. Back at Olidammaran thieves guild, Destin believes they could have their cake and eat it too: pocket the nobles gold, but then spoil the dam project during the ceremony. Destin says he has family and connections in the fishery, and also believes the nobles actions will allow them a power that will undermine the Bastards, and further solidify the Pholtian grip of law Skipta has over the city. Wolfrün decides to take action, forming a party with Yex and Azrael to case the dam and find out about it. At the dam, Ianni takes a carriage and distracts guards. Wolfrün vertically leaps up to the second floor of the keep, finding two men dressed up as shadows pretending to scare one another. He kills one brute while the other one runs to the first floor of the keep to warn about the attack. Frantically, the death monk throws the body into the Vaitarna. Meanwhile, Yex watches as confused Sahuagin wind up in an adjacent ice cave, eating their meals of raw fish while pondering how they got stuck moving downstream. Eventually, Ianni and Wolfrün make it over to the cave and notice a vertical well leading into the dam from the cave, a well used for filtering sediment. Yex jumps into the water and swims up the well while the Sahuagin fight, one of the fish-men sending waves through the water to call a reef shark to attack. Yex kicks off shark attacks and finds this back entrance to the dam, but does not go in, hearing guards a room over discussing Wolfrün's breach. He rejoins the party below, sucking the life out of the Sahuagin priestess while Azrael and Wolfrün dispatch the others. Chapter Thirteen: Ignition Leaving the ice cave, Azrael and Yex return to town through the north gates disguised as a plump, jovial Pholtian cleric named Falthrian and an ethergaard, respectively. The two meet up with Ragnoc Redbeard at the Forge of Moradin in the Fishery. They say they need more materials for the dam building celebration coming the following night. Ragnoc repeatedly tells them they should listen to what someone named Sho Feng said. He seems perturbed from losing the vote, but is also concerned when they tell them there was an attack at the dam. He supplies them with two kegs of gunpowder for the celebration and a bomb in case of any more intruders. They both pay some young men to deliver the kegs to the dam, which is now patrolled by an even larger contingent of Ethergaards. Meanwhile, Wolfrün takes a rest at the tower of Wee Jas, impressing Mezreia with his defeat of a dam worker and subsequent river-burial (that coincidentally fulfilled Wee Jas funereal rites, no less). They pray together, and he leaves her gold and weapons in case she needs the help. The party meets back up at the Olidammaran Thieves Guild, where only Veselona Ilych is awake. Uncharacteristically, the monk praises the party's initiative for taking a rest during the day and immediately going back by cover of night. When they arrive, they decide to split up, with Azrael and Wolfrün sneaking in through the vertical well while Yex stays outside, by the strange portcullis, waiting to get a chance to light the fuse once the party finds an appropriate place for the kegs. Found out in the worker's gallery, Wolfrün does damage control by pretending to be a "torch inspector" and Azrael pretends to be another Ethergaard telling him he needs to leave the site. The workers find the behavior very suspicious and haven't seen these people before, and before long, the Etherknights are entering through the main doors and asking questions. The battle breaks out. Flanked on all sides with workers (who appear to be trained as fighters and armed with crossbows and maces) and knights, Azrael and Wolfrün take a heavy beating. One of the Etherknights runs to the front of the dam and calls the rest of the guards, prompting Yex to try to find a way in. Yex investigates the portcullis trap, plunging into a shadow world of grays and blacks; a colorless, lightless realm that makes the dam appear damaged, ancient, cold, and lost. He runs up the keep stairs to find a horrible hound made of shadows, baying at him. Looking back through the portcullis, he sees a negative of the world he came from. He runs away from the cold world, emerging with his thoughts focused on that terrible hound. He runs to the front of the dam to find Azrael and Wolfrün in terrible condition, and casts healing spells while dealing with some of the knights. The party stages an incredible comeback, fighting through the knights, beating up the thugs, forcing a worker to surrender and deliver a coup de grace, and even running an escaping knight down and draining his life from him. While the death monk and shadow elf assassin battle the last of the workers, Yex sets up kegs on either side of the Pholtian seal, directly next to the downriver side of the dam. In the distance, stage coaches full of knights are coming toward the dam, half a mile away. The party distributes the corpses through the vertical well so that they'll arrive in the ice cave or out into the river. They quickly set fire to the wick and let the alchemical solution ignite. They run toward the watershed. As the run, behind them, the guards watch the Pholtian seal light up for just a moment, the gold glow of the god of Law sparkling just before the flames touch the gunpowder. The dam explodes. (1,300 XP per character)